Writing

Blue Diary – Alice Hoffman

/ still a dreamer

I may have written this elsewhere on my blog about Alice Hoffman, but I will say it again. She never disappoints as an author, and she is a master of the well-crafted, cannot-put-it-down novel.

Blue Diary is the latest of Alice Hoffman’s that I’ve read – just finished it, in fact, and I feel like I want to pick it up and read it again; I didn’t want it to end, and I feel like another reading will further enrich my experience in Monroe, MA. Hoffman’s characters are so real – so relatable. They are people you know, flawed, struggling, yet with their own — sometimes surprising — depths of strength.

A family man with a wife and child who adore him, a worker in the small town relied upon for his excellent services, and a volunteer fireman honored because he is often the first to go into a fire fearlessly and rescue someone trapped. Yet on one morning the police arrive – his own friends – and take him away in handcuffs for a crime he allegedly committed 13 years ago in a different state under a different name. How has this happened?

I suppose in a way you can say this is a murder mystery, but it is so much more than that. It is an examination of the hearts and souls of the people whose lives Ethan Ford has touched,  and those of their friends and loved ones as things start to come apart at the seams, and also of those whose lives he has ruined. It is a mystery that needs sorting out by many different people. Over the course of Blue Diary, the mystery is revealed, played out through the many characters we get to know and care about.

The second chapter in Part One, simply entitled “True,” is from the POV of Kat, neighbor and 12 year old friend of Ethan Ford’s son, Collie. She says, “The first thing I noticed was that he could walk past a mirror without casting a reflection. My grandmother always told me that a mirror can shine back a person’s dishonesty, but what did it mean for a man to have no reflection at all?” This is not a tale of vampires, or the supernatural, but an insight of a child who can appraise a truth. Something no one else has quite been able to grasp, though past inklings come to light for some. Masterfully woven into the main plot are several sub-plots, all wonderfully intriguing.

And then there’s Hoffman’s writing itself. Her writing has been described as “lush” and “luminous” and these are accurate. Her way with words is so incredibly rich, I never want to leave her world – whichever book’s world she has enticed me to enter. Perhaps it’s why I’m inclined to want to read this again immediately after just finishing it. Her descriptions of place, of experience, of emotion are so compelling that I am there. It’s an amazing gift, and I don’t know of that many authors I’ve read that share it so consistently, novel after novel. Blue Diary is a terrific read.

So what next? What can follow such an engrossing story? Or should I just enjoy it again?

The Book That Disappoints

/ still a dreamer

It happens to all of us, right? We’ve selected a book that seems as if it will be really good, and it’s just a disappointment.

I loved the title of this book; I liked the premise of the story; and it got some great reviews. I also liked the jacket art. But what happened? I know what happened. The author failed to make the characters truly come alive for me. (Obviously not so for some of the reviewers.) Pearl Tull was filled with rage at being left by her husband, but although it was described, the elaboration of it and the emotions of her children in response were thin. If a mother is flying into tantrums and calling her children scum and nailing them against the wall when she is so incensed, shouldn’t I feel it?  I didn’t.

The author follows each child’s life, but again, somehow, I felt a distance from all the characters. Sometimes the writing was good, but I just wasn’t engaged. I liked Ezra the most – he seemed the most real to me, but at the end of the book, when the children and their families were gathered after the mother’s funeral, and the father who abandoned them shows up, it’s the oldest son who becomes the focus. Not Ezra, the son who was so devoted to the mother, or the daughter at all.

I kept on reading in the dutiful way we sometimes do – either sure it’s going to get better anytime soon, or because it’s just not that bad to stop entirely. But disappointing.  Have you found any books lately that left you feeling the same?

I’ve picked up one of my favorite authors – Alice Hoffman – as a balm to my disappointment, and am looking forward to her usual good writing. I’m ready for the book I can’t put down.

A Writing Tip or Two

/ still a dreamer / 4 Comments

That’s one thing you can find plenty of online and in books … writing tips. But every now and then we stumble across some especially useful ones – or perhaps ones that particularly resonate with where we are at the moment.

Awhile back I found some I really liked when Kathy Temean, RA of NJ SCBWI, posted on her blog 20 Tips for Writers which Jane Yolen gave at the end of the SCBWI Winter Conference in NYC. Some very basic, some common sense, all good advice and a great post from Kathy.

I also found some tips  in a short, but very useful article as I was thumbing through my 2009 CWIM (Children’s Writer’s & Illustrator’s Market). Entitled 6 Reasons to Stop Writing (and One Reason You Shouldn’t) by Donna Gephart, each section addresses the various reasons why we all, from time to time, feel like giving up – we’re not good enough, there’s never enough time, fear of failure, etc. And of course, she tells us why they really should be ignored! At that exact moment – almost as if I knew that help was in that 2009 edition – I really needed to hear some of what she wrote. She also includes some amazing rejection stories, including Anne Frank’s Diary of A Young Girl, rejected 15 times to finally be accepted by Doubleday. Over 30 million copies are in print.

I couldn’t find this online for a link, so you’ll have to check the 2009 CWIM, but take heart – there are lots of wonderful tips out there to pull us along when our feet are dragging!

The Call to Read Non-Fiction

/ still a dreamer

Are you a voracious reader? Love to read? I consider myself blessed in that I really do love to read. As a small child, I read anything I could get my hands on, and today is no different. Books, magazines, blogs, newspapers, cereal boxes … it’s all good.

However, I would say my strongest leaning is towards good fiction … who doesn’t love a really good story? And if that’s adult fiction, YA or a picture book with fabulous illustrations, I’m in. Recent reads, which I’m hoping to post about, include Leaving the Bellweathers by Kristen Clark Venuti, White Oleander by Janet Fitch and Eggs by Jerry Spinelli … all great. But what about non-fiction? Although I am generally reading a book of a metaphysical nature at whatever leisurely pace that goes, (which is always non-fiction), every now and then I feel a call to read non-fiction of some other sort.

Does non-fiction cleanse the “fiction palate” for you? Does it bring you back to earth and/or provide grist for the mill? Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser is one of the many books I’ve picked up along the way at library sales, yard sales, etc. and has been sitting on my shelf, waiting. What inspired this read is twofold – my interest in the general subject of the status of our food supply and also, that I saw the movie. I read in advance of seeing it that the movie was nothing like the book,  and so far, this certainly is true.

It was a great movie for what it showed … but not for everyone, I’m sure. It’s packed with big name stars who clearly believe in Schlosser’s fast food message – Greg Kinnear, Patricia Arquette, Bobby Cannevale, Kris Kristofferson, Bruce Willis and more. For those who want strictly entertainment, it’s not for you. For those who want to know about the myriad areas of damage that befall people, animals, and the environment, not to mention how your health is affected, from fast food burgers, you may appreciate the wake-up call. A number of fictional story lines are artfully woven together about individuals’ lives who are all affected by the world of meat-packing and fast food. I was already aware of a great deal of this, and it was still an eye-opener for me. The movie is about as far from the book as one could imagine – good fiction created from painstakingly researched non-fiction. Quite a feat!

So back to non-fiction and why we read it …  in this case, I wanted to read the facts behind a movie and learn more about how the fast food empire in America came to be built. What about you? Do you enjoy non-fiction as well as fiction? Perhaps more? Does it cleanse the “fiction palate” for you? And last, but not least, might it inspire your own writing?

Bliss Boulevard

/ still a dreamer

As I was returning from an early morning errand today, I passed a street sign that I had never noticed before … Bliss Blvd.  I looked at it with a kind of longing. That’s where I want to live. Wouldn’t you?

It’s a small side street and easy to miss as it comes up immediately after one turns left onto a well-travelled route, and I couldn’t help but wonder what it meant, that after all these years of passing it, I just noticed it today. I do always take these kinds of things as signs, and not the literal ones. So why did I just see this today?

From numerous nights of poor and/or interrupted sleep, I’m on edge. Things of minor importance become of disproportionate significance; routine but unexpected noises make me jump. And things that may normally cause me some worry cast an even greater shadow. I know sleep will help. But what I also know I need to do in these times is to just let go.

Letting go of worries often means letting go of the illusion of control. The only thing we truly have control over is our own thoughts. The rest – people,  animals, events – on both personal and global scales – is nothing we can control. Sometimes we can only stand by and watch things unfold. Sometimes we can influence things in a positive, (or negative), way. However, others are on their own path, and we don’t ever really know,  though we may glimpse it, what that path is for them – the joy, the pain, the confusion, the triumphs – but it is their path.  Ideally, we can bring to others the best of ourselves and then let the rest go.

So, I thought today, in this sleep-fractured state, that I would pack up a little black bag of worries, control, fear and all that negative crap, and surrender it on my way to a more blissful destination. I’m sure there’s a better night’s sleep to be had there and an easier time of it. And I have children’s books to write and illustrate. I’m headed for Bliss Blvd. Isn’t that where you’d like to be, too?